Razor Art, engraving, Razor Art

Hey guys,
I thought I'd bring up a question about pushing the bar, or perhaps the direction of razor creation.

Process flow:
I was over on Billysblades.com checking out some razors, and I really liked his custom file work on the spines of the razors. Especially what looked like the vines... I decided to check out the knives there too. Bill had a friend of his do some engraving work on a dagger that he made. The engraving work looked great! I wondered what was involved in metal engraving so I did a google search to start some research on it.

I just came from knifeart.com and I saw some pretty amazing handles on the small folding knives they have. They also do a lot of amazing engraving work - and then filling in the lines with very thin gold wire. They tap the wire into the grooves and it looks amazing. I wondered, 'if people make knives this beautiful, transitioning from a functional piece to a luxury art piece, can we do the same thing with razors?'

From an article on Timezone.com (http://www.timezone.com/library/coma...omarticles0034)
I found out more info on hand engraving. I read that engraving in copper or silver or gold isn't as hard as engraving steel (although some people do it), since the metal is softer. For engraving steel it looks like it's recommended to have a neumatic graver.

I then headed over to http://www.handgravers.com/ to check out what is needed to do some engraving work with a neumatic graver. SH*T these little things are expensive! :eek:

The engraver alone looks to be $2600, and to upgrade from a rubber butt to a wood ball is $200. maybe it's just a ton of markup for this signature series piece, but I hope that maybe it could be realistically purchased by some of the razor creators or by a talented artist and incorporated into the custom razor creation.


Specifically, some engraving along the spine is what I'm thinking of. (Although some sweet scales like on knifeart.com would be beautiful).

I have a razor that looks similar to the Dorko that sold on ebay here.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting

Here's a picture of some engraving (although probably stamped) on the spine.
http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/a4/d4/2e9e_3.JPG

It's a little bit more than just 'custom file work'. I think it's much more beautiful, time consuming, and requires more skill too.

Anyone care to weigh in on engraving, and if they feel it is too over-the-top for razors. Anyone feel razors should be more utilitarian and moving in the direction of something like knifeart would be a waste of time?

I've considered hand engraving on razors, but.... here's the problem.

Hand engraving steel requires a great deal of learning and skill and expensive tools. Great engraving is amazing stuff, but it takes years and years of study to get there. And the work, itself, is incredibly expensive because it's so time consuming.

Mostly, engraving steel is a lot of chasing work. Hand gravers are of little practical use with steel.

Engraving is usually done by engravers rather than bladesmiths because it's an art form all unto itself.

Additionally, a problem with engraving razor blades is that the steel is very thin. The blades on high carbon steel razors need to be ground after hardening and you really, really, truly don't want to try fine engraving on hardened steel. Engraving before hardening would just find it ground away in the final grinding, polishing process.

Razors, even if it were practical, that are hand engraved would likely go well over a thousand dollars and I don't think the market is really there for it.

Acid etching/engraving is the most practical and if it's hand done, it's quite expensive, too, and this is something really best done on larger pallettes than a razor would provide.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this very topic and probably will for some time to come.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fredvs79

Here's a picture of some engraving (although probably stamped) on the spine.
http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/a4/d4/2e9e_3.JPG

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You are right, that is stamped while forging the blade...


Nenad

I can tell you that as far a watches go they have engine turning machines which are hand controlled, many date back to the 1800s and thats what they use to do the fine lines on watch faces and movements. way back when when everything was hand made all that was done by hand. Similar to the guys who work at the U.S Mint who do engraving for currency plates. There are only a few guys around who can do that level of work by hand. Of course they can simulate that stuff with a press and you almost can't tell the difference. You need a handlens and the real stuff is less perfect than the pressed stuff. Thats with watches not currency.